Two years ago I decided I needed to diversify my reading list.

I did some calculations and discovered probably 98 percent of the books I’ve read over the last 33 years of my life (ok… 30 years; I didn’t start reading straight out of the womb) were written by white people. I was surprised to see that female authors outnumbered male authors; however, white male authors dominated particular categories like theology. It was time to make a change.

Honestly, it’s been slow-going making progress on my goal. I realize it will take a long time to balance out the diversity of my lifetime book list, but it shouldn’t be taking this long. Part of the problem is I don’t read as much as I used to. TV and Netflix have become my escape. I spend most of my time on the couch in front of the screen instead of reading.

Which brings me to the main purpose of this post: my reading list for 2018.

I’ve set a goal of reading 30 books this year. I’ll probably read more than that because I still have a few I’m finishing up from 2017. But these are the 30 I am definitely going to read this year. While there are a couple of white male authors on the list, the rest are not. I’ve curated the list from recommendations made on a Facebook post from January 2016 when I asked for suggestions of authors of color I should be reading. I also discovered this list of suggested books by women of color and picked a few from there. Finally, because I’m continuing to grow in my desire to be an ally in the quest for racial justice and the eradication of white supremacy, I chose a couple of items from this list of required reading for white allies.

Here’s the list:

Poetry

Counting Descent by Clint Smith III

Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Nejma by Nayyirah Waheed

Fiction

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow isenuf by Ntozake Shange

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Human Acts by Kang Han

Incognegro by Mat Johnson

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique

Refuge by Dina Nayeri

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaiptora

When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds

Nonfiction

History

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano

Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times edited by Carolina De Robertis

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

I put together a “shelf” on Goodreads with the full list so I can track my progress (and have easy access to it when I’m at the library trying to decide what I want to read next). I’ll probably also write reviews or “what I learned” posts here as I finish each book.

2 Responses to My 2018 Reading List

love, love, love Mindy Kaling! I’ve “read” both of hers via audiobook, and love hearing them in her voice!
Graham Greene is a love of mine from my college English classes. I figure any author I enjoy that I’m forced to read, is good!